Competenz 2017Annual Report

Helping Kiwis build skills, careers and businesses

About Competenz

Competenz is a multi-sector industry training organisation (ITO). Our industries include engineering, manufacturing, forestry, food and beverage, printing, transport and textiles. Our purpose is to help Kiwi industry grow skills, careers and businesses. We do this by delivering effective on-the-job training and designing workforce development solutions. Owned by our industries, we are responsible for setting the standards for qualifications in 36 sectors and we support learners, employers and industry to achieve their goals. We’re proud to support more than 26,000 learners and 3,500 businesses nationwide.

Chairman's report

2017 was a difficult year for the New Zealand industry training sector and Competenz was no exception. In a booming national economy employers consistently rated the lack of skilled workers as their biggest challenge, often looking to their ITO for guidance on their recruitment issues.

Other challenges in the form of new technologies and new regulations meant that qualification content was always under pressure to remain current, so employees are equipped with skills relevant to the new requirements of their employers. The perceived lack of work readiness of school leavers continues to challenge employers, and with many complex and intertwined aspects at play no easy fix has yet been identified.

Board members

Business owner and professional director. Has a special interest in youth development and transitions from school to work.

John Blakey

Chairman of the ATNZ Trust and former CEO of Competenz with more than 20 years’ experience in vocational education and training.

Tupara Morrison

Business studies graduate, Chartered Accountant and member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors with extensive governance experience in tertiary education and iwi development.

Judy Newcombe

Extensive experience in leading and managing change in a number of senior management roles in some of New Zealand’s largest corporates. Currently working as a consultant in the not-for-profit sector.

Kelly Smith

Strong commercial background in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, including food and beverage. Extensive experience in sales, marketing, business planning and development.

Bryn Thompson

Business owner, exporter and director with significant engineering and manufacturing experience. Qualified fitter/welder.

Anita Rosentreter

Industry Co-ordinator for Manufacturing with E tū with extensive experience representing members in manufacturing, engineering, service stations, call centres, printing, media and journalism.

CEO's report

In 2017 we made significant progress on our 2020 strategy towards becoming a truly customer centric organisation, guided by our employers and learners and what they need to succeed.

2017 was a year of action to embed our acceleration plan which involved extensive work across five core workstreams: easy to understand pricing, new products and services, efficient digital systems, matching customers to the right service, and increasing learner success.

Sector engagement

Commercial products and services

Learners and employers have told us that they find huge value in our resources and would like to access them outside of formal qualifications. In 2017 we started to make that easy for them. By increasing our non-funded revenue through offering products of value to learners, employers and providers, we can remain the trusted skills partner for our employers and help more learners succeed throughout the life of their careers. While meeting the changing needs of our learners and satisfying our customers, we can remain true to our mission: Transforming lives, every learner, every time.

Canvas – a new learning management system

A modern learning management system (LMS) is a key enabler for our 2020 strategy to be a skills innovator and have 100% of learning content online.

In May 2017 we launched Canvas, an LMS used by more than 3,000 schools, universities and institutions and 18 million learners around the world. Canvas is a modern, easy-to-use system built on the premise that nothing is ever more than two clicks away, both for the learner as well as the content developer. In New Zealand, Canvas is also used by the University of Auckland and Manukau Institute of Technology.

Māori and Pasifika engagement

Got a Trade? Got it Made!

In 2017 the national Got a Trade? Got it Made! campaign ran for the third year. Once again Competenz delivered its own campaign alongside the national campaign targeting both influencers and young people.

We hand-picked eight apprentices and trainees to represent Competenz in this campaign and at the Got a Trade? Got it Made! Industry Training Awards at parliament in August.